Issei no shakuhachi/bankou no namida

The lone voice of the shakuhachi, and I shed innumerable tears

—Ikkyu Sojun

Hitoyogiri is the ancestor of the present day modern shakuhachi. I first heard about it through the poetry of Ikkyu. As I dug deeper I found that the flute he played was different than the shakuhachi we normally play today.

 The name literally means “one noded bamboo cut”. The term was first sound to be used in 1593, but exactly when it started is unknown. Professor Tsukitani said that it was first used in 1664 in Shichiku Shoshinshu, the oldest hitoyogiri instruction manual and Japanese musical notation book.

The term “shakuhachi” (most likely referring to the hitoyogiri) was first used in the Kamakura era (1233) in the publication Koma no Chikuzane’s “Kyoukunshou”, and was used by blind beggar priests (mekura houshi), and accompaniment to sarugaku theatre, and was referred to as “tan-teki” short flute. It was very popular in the beginning of the Edo period being played by all levels of society from beggars to aristocrats. By the middle of the Edo it had almost completely died out due to being eclipsed by the root-ended Fuke shakuhachi.

Hitoyogiri is a unique and beautiful, but quite a cryptic aspect of old Japanese music. The charm of antique/patina-infused things is very beautiful, like the tea master Sen no Rikyu using old farm implements in his tea ceremony. We can venture into the past; to a more innocent world of imagination and freedom.